Constable Smith thought she had stumbled across a traffic crash. Instead, she found herself helping deliver her colleague’s baby.

No wise men stopped, but a motorist carrying a tent in his car did – which meant the mother was able to deliver her post-Christmas miracle shaded from the afternoon sun.

Paramedics had been called and they arrived in time to find two dazzled motorists, two emotional police officers, a beaming new mother and a 4.5kg (10-pound) healthy baby girl in a makeshift camping site on the side of the road.

A police spokesman said mother and child were doing well at the Gladstone Mater Hospital.